Shadrach (1998)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Susanna Styron

Writers (WGA):

William Styron (short story)
Susanna Styron (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

23 September 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In 1935, 99-year-old former slave Shadrach asks to be buried on the soil where he was born to slavery...

Plot Keywords:

Virginia | Law | Slave | Slavery | Race Relations

Cast

Martin Sheen	...	Narrator (voice)
John Franklin Sawyer	...	Shadrach
Scott Terra	...	Paul
Ginnie Randall	...	Virginia
Darrell Larson	...	Father
Deborah Hedwall	...	Mother
Jonathan Parks Jordan	...	Middle Mole
Erin Underwood	...	Lucinda
Alice Rogers	...	Cloris
Monica Bugajski	...	Edmonia
Daniel Treat	...	Little Mole
Andie MacDowell	...	Trixie
Michael Ruff	...	Smut
Muse Watson	...	Captain
Doug Chancey	...	Dock Worker

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

89 min | France:98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | France:U | Spain:T | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Millennium Films

Trivia:

Harvey Keitel and Martin Sheen learned their accents for this film from James L.W. West, while Andie MacDowell, who is a native Southerner, developed her own accent. Keitel spent most of a day talking with West and taping his speech. Sheen later listened to these tapes.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The film is set in 1935. When Paul walks into the house past his father and up the stairs (at the beginning of the film), a smoke detector is visible on the ceiling at the bottom of the stairs.

Soundtrack:

I Want Jesus to Walk With Me

Authentic and nostalgic

How refreshing it is to see a movie about northeastern North Carolina-southeastern Virginia that could actually have been filmed in the area and that features people who could actually have lived here! Well, it was a bit hard to believe that after living a hard life and birthing that many children, Andie McDowell's character would still look young, thin, and pretty. If I thought it would make me look like that, I'd take up drinking beer.

Amazingly, Harvey Keitel is believable as the irascible father, and his accent is even tolerable. Perhaps what is amazing is his versatility as an actor, since he was also believable as Baines in "The Piano," Auggie in "Smoke" and "Blue in the Face," the police detective in "Thelma and Louise," and all those heavies in all those gangster films.

What should you expect if you view this film? A glimpse at what this part of the world looked like before WWII and farm-to-market roads and typhoid shots and birth control; a child's-eye view of growing up in a rural family in the Depression; a story about doing what's right. I liked it.